Syracuse is still days away from tipping off the season, but Gavin Doty is already done with the part that comes easiest in October: talking about it. He wants a game.
The Orange were represented by head coach Gerry McNamara, Doty and Aiden Tobiason at ACC Tipoff in Charlotte earlier in the week, and Doty made it clear what’s been driving the group. The practices are useful, sure, but the real appetite is for an opponent wearing a different jersey.
"Yeah, you know, it was very exciting. Me, G-Mac, and Aiden had dinner last night, and we talked about how we just want to play somebody already.
So, really looking forward to UConn, six days away. It'll be a great test, obviously against a legendary program.
Dan Hurley is a fantastic coach and they run great things over there. So, that'll be a great test for us.
We got a great group. Very diverse and just really can do a lot of things on the floor.
So, I'm really looking forward to it."
Doty arrives in Syracuse with real buzz behind him. After helping Siena reach the NCAA Tournament, he was one of the most sought-after transfers in the market.
He led the Saints in scoring at 18.0 points per game and added 6.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists a night. Now he says the Orange are getting a player who’s ready to bring more than just production.
"I think what you can expect is just a different level of energy. I take a lot of pride in every day, every game just to have high energy on the floor.
The balls on the ground I'm going to dive on it. If it's going out of bounds, I can tell you that I'm going to try to save it.
Offensively, I've grown my skillset a lot over the past couple years at Siena. I want to limit the turnovers as much as I can.
I've got my shots, getting a lot better over the last two years. Took a big jump my freshman to sophomore year, and I'm going to take another big this sophomore to junior year."
That kind of confidence fits the moment Syracuse is in. Plenty of preseason talk has the Orange somewhere in the middle of the ACC, scrapping for an NCAA Tournament spot, which leaves little room to breathe if they want to end a five-year drought.
Doty, though, isn’t talking like a player worried about the margins. He says the group has the ingredients to make noise when it matters most.
"Our goal is to win some big games in March and I fully believe that we can do that, especially with the group we have. We value character a lot in our program, attitude, maturity, respect.
We got a great group in terms of that that we're going to leave it all on the floor every night. So, it's really, really exciting."
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